01 July 2017

YAMAGUCHI, Japan (Kyodo) -- The governor of Yamaguchi gave the green light Friday to a plan to transfer over 60 U.S. carrier-based aircraft to a Marine Corps base in Iwakuni in the western Japan prefecture by May 2018.

The decision by Gov. Tsugumasa Muraoka came a week after Iwakuni Mayor Yoshihiko Fukuda agreed to the transfer which, when completed, will make the station one of the largest U.S. air bases in Northeast Asia in terms of the number of aircraft based there.

"As a prefecture, I will take the decisions of local communities seriously and accept them," the governor said at a meeting of the prefectural assembly, adding that he is "on the same page" with Fukuda and the heads of other municipalities that have similarly green-lighted the transfer.